Let me begin by saying this is not a permanent thing. After an overwhelming start to university, the rush of assignments and everything else, I thought what better way to relax my mind as well as my iPhone (plus my poor hand) than with a break from my main social media.

I’m a dedicated Instagram and Snapchat user. I love the little snapshot filters, watching other peoples stories and scrolling endlessly on Instagram (and I mean, endlessly). But after seeing my battery usage, I stopped. It’s safe to say that I’m addicted to my phone. In this age and era, it’s impossible not to be. Everything and anything is shared online and everybody is on it including friends and family.

I started with logging out of both my Snapchat and Instagram accounts and deleting the apps. I kept FaceBook purely because I tend to read articles quite a lot on there. A few days passed and it was great – I realised how much time I had on my hands and it just improved my mood overall. Even though we may not realise, social media makes us crazy competitive – the whole point of it all is to gain attention and reactions, this then leads to comparing ourselves to other people. Something we could all do without. All was going well until I realised I eventually was going to be drawn back into the cycle. So I decided to download the apps (took long enough). I knew I would eventually be on social media again, so I had to figure out a way that would mean I’m able to use the apps but without them totally taking over my life.

I decided to turn off my notifications for the apps. Notifications like a friend request or being tagged in memes would just be another lame excuse for me to spend another 25 minutes on Instagram (even though declining or accepting a request takes less than 5 seconds). As soon as this happened, I immediately saw myself using my phone less than I usually did when I had the notifications off (because no notifications = no reminder). But, if you’re somewhat like me you’ll probably be watching Netflix and subconsciously check your phone, scroll through Instagram or refresh your story page on Snapchat even though you did 2 minutes ago. My solution for this is to put your phone somewhere out of sight and reach (laziness = no picking up phone).

Since adopting these small tricks I’ve definitely realised that the amount of time I spend on my phone has reduced. Not only has this given me much more time on my hands but it’s also allowed me to take a little breather from the hectic thing that is social media. It can be difficult to do this but even if it’s just for one day – it’s a nice way to relax and bring yourself back into tune with reality.